green112

Green 112

Calculating my carbon footprint

I calculated my carbon footprint using the Google carbon footprint calculator. The result is shocking. According to the calculator, my personal annual carbon footprint is about 9 tonnes of CO2. This quantity is far above the average being recorded on the site for the UK.

I am in despair. I try on a daily basis to limit and reduce my carbon footprint. I do all manner of things that are inconvenient in order to reduce my CO2 emissions, and I exhort others around me to do the same. However, despite all that I have been doing over the past decade or more, my carbon footprint remains massive. I feel like a hypocrite: persuading other people to take the issue seriously while I squander the planet's capacity to cope with a population of 6.5 billion people.

One point is shockingly obvious: for as long as I live, I shall be part of the problem. One resolution to this tension would be for me to end my life. My final burden to global warming would be the decomposition of the flesh of my body. I find this conclusion upsetting and difficult, for it denies my right to life and to live. In order to live I have no choice but to consume. There is an annual quantity of CO2 emissions to which I have to be entitled in order to live. I do not know the amount to which I should be entitled.

I readily acknowledge that the planet cannot take any more greenhouse gases. Global warming is already a reality, and it is set to worsen, quite possibly catastrophically. It is no use me saying that I can do no more than I have been doing. More simply has to be done.

I also acknowledge that economically-developed countries, such as the UK, Germany and the US, are a more significant part of the problem than economically-developing countries, such as India, China and Brazil. Therefore it is right that the populations of North America and western Europe should be making more profound energy consumption changes than the populations of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Here several issues:

1. Much of the infrastructure of the West is energy costly: factories, offices, shopping malls, transport, street lights. About these things there are no decisions or choices for me to make: I can do nothing. As a result of the enormity of the societal infrastructure, living in UK society is much more energy-expensive than living in, say, Mali or Nepal. In order to reduce my 'impersonal' carbon footprint to that of a person living in central Africa or central Asia I would have to drop out of UK society.

2. Much of my personal carbon footprint is only in part a result of my decisions: I would buy hydroelectric and wind-power produced electricity if I could; I would use public transport for commuting to work were it a viable option (were petrol to be banned, I would lose my job).

3. The UK is not warm, and North East England is one of the colder parts of the UK. Much of my personal carbon footprint results from that age-old issue of wishing to stay warm. Is the correct response for the planet to say that people should not live in places that require heating. (Does a similar concern apply to anywhere where there is a requirement for air conditioning?) To where, then, should I move? How would I find a job?

4. The living conditions typical of people living in places such as Mali and Nepal are completely unacceptable. Never mind considering reducing Western living standards to those typical of parts of Africa, I believe that the living standards of all people in the economically-developing world should be raised significantly.

It occurs to me that the Google carbon footprint calculator did not take into account many of the things that I do to mitigate the impact of my existence on the planet:

1. As a vegan vegetarian, I have no responsibility for animal-derived CO2 and methane emissions. As a vegan vegetarian, I have no responsibility for the CO2 emissions resulting from the production of animal-derived foodstuffs and other items.

2. I attempt to grow some of my own fruit and vegetables, thereby eliminating some 'food miles' and their associated greenhouse gas emissions.

3. As anyone who knows me would readily testify, I buy nothing for fashion, and few clothes. I spend next to nothing on consumer goods such as books, CDs and household items. I replace white goods and cars only when they are beyond repair and there is no choice. No house in which I have ever lived as an adult has experienced even one full cycle of renovation / refit / decoration.

4. As posted at length elsewhere I am an avid re-user and recycler.

I am not clear that any of the above have been taken into account. It is not that I am begging for special pleading. I am suggesting that the picture painted by the Google carbon footprint calculator makes some simplistic assumptions. The situation, my situation, is more complex than their few questions. However, I also consider it possible that little if any of what I do makes much in the way of difference. In which case I might as well not have bothered.

To return to some earlier points, I have a belief that my birth gives me the right to live. The requirements for life, any life, impact on the environment. I believe that every one of the 6.5 billion people on this planet, and of all the people yet to come, have a right to life, not just to existence. En masse, our life constitutes a massive demand on the environment, and the atmosphere in particular. I am happy to believe that it is incumbent on societies to find ways of living that mitigate the effect of our demand, and that it is incumbent on me as an individual to live my life in ways that mitigate the effect of my demand,

[to be continued ...]